KINGFIELD – SAD 58 Superintendent Quenten Clark explained the district’s decision to ask its constituents for approval to spend an additional $150,000 on an addition to Stratton School to members of the Board of Selectmen at a meeting Monday evening.
The addition, slated to be finished by 2007 at the latest, is being done by R&R Construction of Lewiston. According to Clark, SAD 58 will request the additional money at a referendum on Election Day in November.
“We opened the bids on the day Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast,” Clark said. He explained that when the bids came in high, the school board at first took it in stride, as negotiating renovation prices is a normal part of doing school additions. “It happened in (the) Phillips (addition), and twice in Kingfield,” Clark said.
However, he added, “this time when we went to negotiate, it was September and the price of plywood had doubled. There was no way to take things out and (still) do the project.”
In negotiations, the board managed to negotiate cut $112,000 from R&R’s original price, but, Clark said, “We opted to ask the public for another $150,000, and we felt it would be nice to have a bit of a contingency to work from.”
If voters do not approve the additional spending, Clark said, construction will still go forward, but rather than taking out a new loan, the district will pay for the renovations in next year’s budget. “If we don’t do a bond, we’re essentially taking out of the next year’s budget,” Clark explained.
Clark touched on questions about how the district’s budget might change if Poland Spring builds a bottling plant in Kingfield. “Overall, its pretty hard to do the math where it isn’t a good thing for everybody,” Clark said.
Clark also told the selectmen about the board’s decision to split technology educator positions with SAD 9. “We save a significant amount of money on this,” Clark said.
Selectmen voted to appoint Greater Franklin Development Corp. as the town’s representative to the Androscoggin Valley Pinetree Zone, and discussed replacing the furnace in the new fire station. “The furnace isn’t any good,” selectmen Chairman John Dill said.
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